The Vigilante
I have been friends with a guy named Eduardo for 15 years. There has always been something unique and mysterious about Eduardo; he is a nocturnal creature who loves to be up all hours of the night and hated waking up to do anything in the daytime. He hung out with me and my group of friends all the time but there were instances where he would give us strange excuses to why he would not be able to hang out, or, that he would not be able to show up until a certain time usually really late like, 1 or 2 in the morning. Over the 15 year friendship with Eduardo he showed us some unique weapons or tolls he made. For instance, he used a kid’s super soaker water gun, but instead of using water inside the barrel that holds the water he would fill it with a half of gallon of gasoline. Then at the tip of the gun where the water spray would come out, he taped and super glued a zippo lighter (the kind that will keep the flame on) to the tip. He would pump up the super soaker and light the zippo at the tip then spray and out came a 10-15 foot flame with thick, hot, fire. Eduardo also took apart a disposable camera, connected two wires inside and used what was left of the camera as a Taser. He would wind up the flash dial numerous times (the more times wound up the more power of electricity) then press the “take picture” button and touch the two wires to someone to electrocute them. He did it to me but only one extremely low voltage as he said. We always knew Eduardo was agile, sneaky smart, and good with tools. We just didn’t know what he was doing with all his time. The usual excuse for not being able to hang out would be that he is in LA or he has family over and would have to wait. We accepted his answers and never thought much of it. It wasn’t until I read on Yahoo news that criminals were being found dead in the streets around the area in which we lived. Then I read in a December 23rd issue of our local newspaper the ''Ventura County Star, ''which a burglary and ensuing murder of a jewelry store clerk occurred in nearby Thousand Oaks, in which the perpetrator was found with two ninja stars in the back of his head while burning to ashes. All that was found was a kid’s super soaker water gun at the scene of the crime. This baffled investigators and made me think back to what Eduardo showed me when we were kids. December 23 was a Friday, two nights before Christmas and I remember calling Eduardo to see if he wanted to come over and play some beer pong with the guys. He said he would be in LA but he would be home around midnight and then he would come over. The burglary occurred at 10:30 pm that night. This really made me think about just what he was doing two hours before he came to hang out with us that night. Eduardo finally sat all of us down and told us what he has been doing with all his time. He told us he was a Vigilante at night. He had a police tracker to listen to the calls and he also hacked into the live feed from city cameras on buildings, stoplights, etc. He beat the cops to the scene of the crime and took out the criminals without anyone ever knowing. He would only use weapons that he made from tools and parts anyone can buy at the store. He was modern day MacGyver, mixed in with the elusiveness of Batman.